Poor judgment

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/12/2011 (5434 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What was a Winnipeg judge thinking when she dished out bonus pretrial credit to a high-risk criminal?

That’s the question on a lot of minds after provincial court Judge Lee ann Martin decided to significantly reduce the sentence of a drug-dealing gang member with an extensive history of convictions.

As the Winnipeg Free Press reported this week, Shannon Stonefish, 28, was convicted earlier this year of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Martin sentenced him to 7.5 months in custody, in addition to 11 months of time already served.

But the judge gave Stonefish 1.5-to-1 credit for that pretrial custody, bumping it up to 16.5 months for a total sentence on paper of two years.

When the federal Conservative government passed legislation last year to cut back on the amount of extra credit convicted criminals receive against their sentences for time served, we hailed the move.

For too long, pretrial credit had been abused by criminals and their lawyers, who deliberately delayed when a case went to trial, knowing full well that each day spent behind bars before the trial they would have received credit for two days off of their eventual sentence.

It was a loophole that needed to be closed.

The Tories set strict guidelines last year for when judges could depart from the normal practice of giving straight credit for pretrial custody. Judges could no longer give out 2-for-1 credit, as had become the practice in Canada. Instead, the maximum allowed would be 1.5-to-1 credit, but only if certain provisions were met by the offender. In Brandon, it was typically 1.5-to-1 anyway.

At the time, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said that no change in the 1-to-1 ratio would be allowed under any circumstances for people who have violated bail conditions or who have been denied bail because of their criminal record. That should have automatically disallowed Stonefish for any credit for time served as he was clearly violating bail when he was arrested for the current case. Stonefish was on bail for drug charges at the time of his 2010 arrest and has continued to wreak havoc while in custody, including participating in the gang-related beating of another man.

But for some reason — one that she has not properly explained — Martin defied section 719 of the Criminal Code and lessened his sentence. It’s not like Stonefish was some ignorant punk who made a stupid mistake and deserved a bit of leniency. This is a criminal with a history of convictions and gang ties who should serve out his full sentence without the benefit of a pretrial credit.

Though Martin was a Manitoba NDP appointee to the bench, we can’t merely chalk this up to partisan politics, as Manitoba Justice Minister Dave Chomiak was all in favour of the federal legislation when it was finalized.

Judge Martin needs to explain herself.